Tampabay.com
NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Review: Devo's 'Are We Not Men' show is short but super

Devo
Are we not '80s fans? No, we are
Devo fans. At least many of us are, including Stuck in the '80s correspondent Christina Kajtsa, who lives in possibly the most un-'80s city of all: Seattle. (Death to grunge!) She caught Devo in concert last week and provides this short review:

Last night I went to see Devo in concert at the Moore Theater here in Seattle. They're only performing in 6 cities, doing two shows a night. One night they are only performing songs off their Are We Not Men?... We Are DEVO! album. The second night they're performing Freedom of Choice. I went to see Are We Not Men?....

The theater was sold out, and a little after 9 p.m. a giant screen came down from the top of the theater and starting showing old DEVO videos (specifically, Secret Agent Man and Mechanical Man). The crowd went wild once all the band members came on stage.

All of them wore their trademark yellow jumpsuits with the word "DEVO" printed across the chest and during the first two songs -- the setlist was the same order as the album... starting with Uncontrollable Urge and ending with Shrivel Up -- Mark Mothersbaugh kept ripping off parts of each of the band members suits (a sleeve here, a pant leg there).

I have to say, I was quite impressed with the show. I thought they would just stand around playing their old songs, but they had choreographed moves for each number (mainly just a lot of marching in place and in circles) and Mothersbaugh was all over the stage. He played the keyboard, the guitar, sang and ran around the stage with pompoms.

At one point in the show, they ripped off their yellow jumpsuits and wore nothing but black t-shirts and black shorts.

Unfortunately, the show was only about 70 minutes long. I thought they were going to play their greatest hits as well, but they mainly stuck to the songs on the We Are Not Men album.

Overall I really had a great time and I was impressed as hell that men who are well into their 50s and 60s still know how to show the crowd a good time.

[Click here to see if Devo is coming to your town.]

[Photo by SIT80s LA correspondent Brad Williams]

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About the blogger

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times entertainment news editor Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.

E-mail Steve Spears:
stuckinthe80s@tampabay.com
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